After their historic 50th anniversary season, the Great Canadian Theatre Company (GCTC) is back for their 2025-26 season, and they’re not slowing down.
The theme for this season is “exploring our place in the world,” which Hugh Neilson, managing director of GCTC, says is usually chosen after compiling the various works that end up in the final version of the season.
“We have a lot of different feelers out for different works–wanting to work with different artists and different groups, different companies, bring in presentations, what type of things we want to produce–and so it starts from there about a year and a half, maybe two years out,” says Neilson. “It’s quite a complex thing to put together, but then it starts to fall into place, and then that’s kind of when a theme starts to reveal itself.”
The theme is also inspired by part of the mandate that grounds GCTC and the work that they’ve been doing for half a century.
“Very much with what’s going on in the background behind us–actually, more in the foreground–in Canada, south of us, around the world, we try to find pieces that take our mandate into consideration, which is to foster and develop Canadian works,” he says. “And in our mandate is the sentence, ‘examining our place in the world,’ and we found that these pieces were doing that.”
The 2025-26 season will have five performances, exploring humour, imagination, and transformation.
From Oct. 28 to Nov. 9, Abraham Lincoln goes to the Theatre will kick off the season from French Canadian writer Larry Tremblay.
Photo by Curtis Perry.
“It’s a clever piece, a shifting piece. Just when you think you’ve got a hold of it, it just takes you in a different direction,” says Neilson. “When I read it, at first I was just laughing so much. It’s poignant, and does look at our place in the world in what’s a humorous and unique way. I mean, they’re talking to a wax figure as an actor, it’s a very funny piece.”
Continuing with the humour, Big Stuff, performing from Nov. 25 to Dec. 7, is a commentary on the real experiences of creators Matt Baram and Naomi Snieckus as they examine what stuff is, what we carry around, and why it’s important.
Photo by Dahlia Katz.
“It’s a brilliantly funny piece, part of that is improvised as well, but it’s really a collaborative effort with the audience in those scenes,” says Neilson. “It’s a scripted piece, but it has moments of improvisation to bring the audience in and share their experiences with this.”
The second half of the season sees performances that touch on the power of imagination, and reimagination—of ourselves and of our circumstances.
From Feb. 3-15, The Piano Teacher from South Island Playhouse follows the story of a classical pianist who loses her ability to play music anymore due to a devastating tragedy.
Photo by Curtis Perry.
“That’s a piece that’s been in our mind for a few seasons now,” says Neilson. “It’s a beautifully wonderful piece about someone kind of reinventing themselves and healing through the art of music.”
A unique piece with a key component being audience engagement, BL_NK, written by Iranian playwright Nassim Soleimanpour, will perform from March 17-29. Aptly named, as this show will have a new performer every night, filling in the blanks for a heartwarming and one-of-a-kind story.
Photo by Curtis Perry.
“It comes from an individual who has to share their story because they can’t tell it, finding a way to bring you to an understanding of them and yourself with this piece,” says Neilson. “It’s kind of an ingenious tool for that.”
Finally, Jade Circle will be performing from April 28 to May 10, bringing audiences on a journey with writer and performer Jasmine Chen, who tries to piece together her family’s past as a second-generation Canadian who has lost her family’s mother tongue. Blending English and Mandarin together, it definitely promises to be an emotional showstopper.
Photo by Pedro Augusto Meza.
“I find it one of the most moving pieces of the season,” says Neilson. “It’s just so touching, so beautiful, so wonderful, so delicately put together coming from Chen’s beautiful work and experience.”
A powerful season to follow up GCTC’s 50th anniversary, Neilson says that this year, they’re not taking anything for granted.
“[The past season] rooted for me the importance of what theatre does, which is it brings strangers together to experience something for the first time, and there aren’t many of those avenues left,” he says. “Other art forms can be done individually, viewed individually, but this one requires you to be amongst people, and the importance for that was really, with the 50-year moniker, that this is a significant and important institution in our town.”
GCTC Logo. Photo provided.
Neilson hopes this season will continue fostering that sense of community, so integral to our theatre venues.
“What I’m hoping to see more of this year is audiences seeing a piece and then the din of conversation after the show in the lobby, with a piece that they’ve seen that has touched them, made them laugh, or what have you,” he says. “And occasionally seeing new connections being made between people who have never spoken together before. That’s what I hope for in all this.”
GCTC’s 2025-26 season begins this fall, but you can become a GCTC subscriber with varying perks and prices. For more information about becoming a subscriber, click here. For more information about any upcoming shows in the GCTC 2025-26 season, visit their website.
